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202-265-9241
Picture for Dan's Cafe
City's Best

2315 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009

Average Rating 5 (3 Ratings)

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Find this business under: Restaurants, Bars

  • Credit Cards Accepted: Cash Only

Dan's Cafe is an Adams Morgan institution and longtime neighborhood favorite. Stubbornly resisting the fashion incursion of the past decade, Dan's remains as it was: cheap, dirty, and smoky. No rotating interior decorations. No specialty martinis. No huge boobs painted on the wall. No theme nights. No beer on tap. No service with a smile. No recent revisions to the jukebox selections. No food. No happy hour. And, as one of the signs that suffice for decor announces, "No Drugs in the Bathroom." (A pronouncement which is notably indicative of the management's general attitude towards the clientele and of the clientele's behavior). Here's what Dan's does have: A pool table. About twenty kinds of bottled beer. Some mixers, glasses and hard liquor in little airplane-like bottles. As for the clientele, Dan's has a cadre of devoted customers, some chronically broke, some out of their minds and some doggedly anti-pretentious. -- Gwendolyn Bradley

3 Ratings and Reviews

  • Cheap Drinks and Friendly Bar

    Review rating : 5out of 5   joshuawooldridge - 09/27/2006

    For 13 dollars, or less, you can get you own 375 bottle of liquor and whatever mixer you want. If you love a good hole in the wall this is your place. Nothing fancy, just friends and booze. And nevermind that multi-colored pool table it just adds to the decor. And it has a pretty sweet jukebox.

  • Best Bar in DC

    Review rating : 5out of 5   sandmanwv - 12/09/2004

    Why?
    You don't pay a cover. Don't see guys in black pants there. The bathrooms are 3rd world countryish, the beer is cheap, and the liqour deals are black-out-of your mind cheap. You get a cup of liqour, bucket of ice and a mixer for $10.
    Go here everytime I go to Adams Morgan. Though not for everyone.

  • Best Hole in the Wall in Washington

    Review rating : 5out of 5   magdalena281 - 02/23/2003

    Among Adams Morgan's extensive selection of upscale clubs and lounges hides the ultimate in hole in the wall bar experiences -- the gem Dan's Cafe. Pretense is nonexistant, no one pretends to know your name -- but if you're ready to pound a couple of drinks back and settle into the small world of smoke and loud rock music, you're ready to have a great time. There's a reason why this nondescript location is consistently packed on weekend nights.
    The ultimate in convenience, the house special comes for an economical $12. Select an alcohol, choose a mixer. The bartender provides two empty glasses (for you and your drinking buddy), one glass filled with the alcohol of choice and a small bottle of mixer, as well as a small bucket filled with ice. After the bartender throws the empty liquor bottle into the garbage bin in front of him with a satisfying crash, the bartending work is up to the consumer. Fill your glass with ice, select the potency of your poison.
    Dan's Cafe is not one for the black pants/trendy shirt/club-hopping set that tend to frequent Dream or Heaven for their dance club vibes. It is, instead, one for the barhopper who wants to kick back in jeans, sneakers and enjoy loud conversation and a gritty location. For those souls, it is the ultimate in divey fun bar experiences. Good times -- nothing more, nothing less.

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